Harold Volkmer

we were opposed to that bill that basically is not doing anything different from what they are doing right here. There is no difference.

I am a little disappointed because I see this fight as the same fight. I do not see a difference between the two, and perhaps later on we can discuss the distinction between the access bill of last year and what we are doing here.

To be honest with my colleagues, Mr. Chairman, I am quite disappointed from the gentleman from Illinois because I well remember last year, as we debated the access to clinics bill, and we were on the same side on that issue.

Wait a minute now. I do not want to get into this too far, but we do have the Constitution, and the Supreme Court has spoken in Roe versus Wade, and that is a law that I sure ``ain't'' going to follow, and I want the gentleman to…

I am not trying to gut their amendment. I am offering a substitute. I am trying to be straightforward about the whole issue, not beat around the bush.

I mean, they have been all day long beating around the bush. They are acting like nobody is really going to go for these abortion clinics, we are not going to help them out at law. We are not going to do anything to help them out. Of…

I do not think I would have supported something that even President Reagan, this House, and our Senate at that time found there was such gross abuses in by local units of government, using it for things it should not have been used for.

I think I have tried to point out some of the things that are severely wrong with this bill, and I think it goes too broad, permits any and every thing that you can use your imagination for if you are a member of local government. And one…

It will be very brief because, as my colleague knows, I am just amazed about the support for this bill in general because of what it does do as far as abortion clinics, and as my colleague knows, we have people out there that are…

I find that and that tells me the gentleman does not trust local government, because surely his local government the way he described it in general debate would never do this.

I remember the gentleman was here and I was here when we found out all of these things about LEAA and we were not happy. Then I find in this bill the local government may not be quite, may not just be quite the local government that the…

The gentleman's amendment is to make it clear we can use moneys from these funds to have people that are picketing at abortion clinics go to jail.

Oh, no, no, we are going to take care of those, too. I am just saying you do not restrict these other things. You do not restrict them at all. You are saying as long as you are doing it to stop crime or, I will use your exact words again…

The biggest thing we can do you help undo, and you leave it open. The gentleman says, ``They're not going to do those things.'' Well, who bought the tank? Who bought the tank? The tank was bought by law enforcement people under the old…

But I do think you can tighten the purposes up quite a bit more and narrow them quite a bit more than you have done. What we have attempted to do and some of us feel that one of the major items facing this Nation, especially in our major…

What the gentleman is saying to me and making clear is under the bill as it is written, if a unit of the local government feels it is necessary to have policemen around abortion clinics they can have all of the police around the abortion…

I do not want the public safety, but I think a lot of times the people that are out there picketing are not endangering anybody. We have had this discussion; I thought we were on the same side.

I say they are entitled to freedom of speech and freedom to walk down there, and what I am afraid of is that in the name in some localities they will get these Federal funds, and they will put people down there so they cannot do that----

at first when I heard that everybody was in harmony about this amendment and everything, I was not paying much attention, but as I listened and listened I got more concerned about it all along. That concerns me, to where I know not every…

If they feel and the Attorney General would feel it is for reducing crime and improving public safety, that is the limitation. It does not make any difference what the gentleman's amendment says.

If I still have time remaining, I would just like to comment to the gentleman that a local unit of government, if it sees fit under this bill, can make a specific proposal to the Attorney General's office, to the Department of Justice…

today marks the third full week since the naming of the House Ethics Committee. As of now the committee has not discussed any of the very important issues before them involving our Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is a cloud hovering over the…

No. We cannot get it. Under this bill, I get some money. It is going to help my State. And maybe under that, maybe Missouri's higher education will be able to get a little more of the budget because they will get a little bit of their…

what I am trying to tell the gentleman is that the State legislatures that want to do it, like Missouri wants to do it, we are doing it. We have got to build new prisons. We are taking money away from higher education, from mental health…

I have worked up this amendment, and I would like to have the opportunity to offer it. I am just trying to preclude that and restate my stand on one issue, and that is the BATF. I would just talk about that and limit the time. I am willing…